1/48 Wellington Mk. III of 425 Squadron - "Starting to Finish"

[Crimea_River]

This build was started in Group Build #40 "Heavy Hitters III" but went very long and was ultimately stopped when my father passed almost three year ago. Good intentions drove a possible restart for GB #50 but once again reality took over and so I'm now including this build in the "Start to Finish" category to pick up where I left off and to hopefully finish it, finally. I don't know what I'm going to do with the thing when it's done as it's a large model and won't fit into any display case that I have. I might donate it to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton if they want it but I'm getting ahead of myself.

A link to the long start of this build can be found here: GB-40 1/48 Vickers Wellington Mk. III - Heavy Hitters III and so I won't go through all of what transpired before. The build incorporated a lot of extra detailing that was only possible through the excellent inputs and reference materials provided by Geo, Terry, Grant and others and so I want to continue on that basis to add as much detail as is practical and within limits of sanity.

Having read through the GB thread again to refamiliarize myself with what I did, I plunged back into this project yesterday. I had become hung up with the draft doors behind the nose turret that would need to be scratch built and the apparent foul of said doors with the bombing computer that I painstakingly scratch built earlier. Here's what that area looks like with the fuselage temporarily taped together.

What caused me to stall 3 years ago was the fact that the turret needs to be trapped between the fuselage halves and so there would be no way of filling the gaps behind the turret which, on the real airplane, would have been closed with those convex doors. However, I've now decided that I will cut the nose away after gluing the halves together to allow the turret to be installed later and that will also allow me to fill the gaps behind the turret properly. I'll do the same for the tail turret.

And so, the fuselage was finally buttoned up and clamped so I can get on with this.

Though this build can not be part of the current "Heavy Hitters IV" GB, which I won't be entering, this thread may be a good fit to run in parallel with the GB and so I'll try to finish this Wimpy in the same time frame.

Thanks for looking in and I hope that I can maintain your interest as I try to get this thing done.

 

[fubar57]

Happy to see this restarted.

 

[Crimea_River]

That makes one of us.

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

nice.

looking forward to seeing this one finished

 

[Donivanp]

Well it will be nice to see her done.

 

[Airframes]

Good to see you back on this one Andy, looking forward to further up-dates.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks gents. I'm eyeing the wheel wells with some trepidation. The great references I got from you guys are confirming how wrong the parts are that Trumpeter provided and I'm trying to see how best to tackle that issue, if at all.

 

[nuuumannn]

I'm trying to see how best to tackle that issue, if at all.

It wouldn't be you if you didn't overthink it, Andy...

 

[Crimea_River]

What do you mean by that Grant? Do you think I think things over or do I think about things too much? I wonder if that's a dig or maybe you're just making a stark observation. Maybe you don't like me. Oh my, what to do now....

 

[Donivanp]

Thanks gents. I'm eyeing the wheel wells with some trepidation. The great references I got from you guys are confirming how wrong the parts are that Trumpeter provided and I'm trying to see how best to tackle that issue, if at all.

You mean Trumpeter did something wrong? Oh my!

 

[SANCER]

Thanks gents. I'm eyeing the wheel wells with some trepidation. The great references I got from you guys are confirming how wrong the parts are that Trumpeter provided and I'm trying to see how best to tackle that issue, if at all.

That's the attitude, determination and strength Andy.

There is so much to continue learning in this forum ... about all you, your reference photos and your work !!

I still miss being able to get close to my workbench; but sporadically peeking into the forum comforts me.

Excellent project amigo mìo, I will be attentive to your progress.

Saludos muy cordiales desde Mèxico

Luis Carlos

 

[BertUS]

I will follow, mostly silent because I have knowledge of the real one, but for all thinking twice before 1step is always good

 

[Gnomey]

Good to see you back at it Andy. Looks good so far!

 

[Builder 2010]

Just read the entire old thread… Wow… that's a brilliant job on detailing a 1:48 model!

As I looked at all the pictures of the Welli's airframe it blew my mind that they chose to frame it with that crazy honeycomb lattice. Who's brilliant idea was that? How the heck could you mass produce such a complex structure? I'm sure it was extremely strong, but at what cost? What was the safety record of the Wellington's in the war. I'm not very familiar with British bombers during the war. What kind of radial was that? It looks like a Bristol with slide valves like the Centaurus. Am I seeing that correctly?

Once again, it's a beautiful build and I'll be watching as you complete it.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks gentlemen. Builder 2010 I thank you for the kind words and I'm hoping that your questions are rhetorical and that you don't want me to answer them all. There's plenty of info online that you can refer to.

This last week has been devoted to trying to figure out what's going on with the wheel wells and that's why I have nothing substantial to show. I have a myriad of excellent photos and references from Terry, Geo, and Grant and these are allowing me to check reality against what's been provided in the kit. Below are two pics that Terry gave me (thanks pal!) that I have annotated. Note the arrows pointing to what I believe to be the main spar of the wing and the portion that apparently transits through the wheel well:

Note also that, with the exception of the entry points of the spar, there is only a single skin that forms the cowling in the wheel well area.

Here's what the kit provides:

The wheel wells are defined by two halves of a rectangular styrene box to which the undercarriage struts (white metal), retraction frame, and the wing spar attach. Photoetched panels that represent the side wall details are also provided.

With the assembly dry-fitted sans PE, the immediate observation that can be made is that the wheel wells form a box WITHIN the curved surface of the cowls and so present a much more restricted area than in reality. There is also a lack of detail on the frames that allows for a positive connection of the parts to ensure that the walls are correctly spaced - in other words, the frames are free to "float" between the walls.

Now for the kicker. The well assembly is secured into the lower wing half with pins so that there is no chance of improperly locating the part and, once assembled and pinched between the upper and lower wing halves, we can see how things line up - or not.

Note how much the spar details are misaligned. The spar detail in the wheel well is a full 6mm aft of the moulded detail on the wing that supposedly represents the same spar. I have checked this several times now and have yet to figure out what's happening here and so I need to dig a little further into this. Is the moulded spar in the wing correctly located? Hope so as I can't do much about that. Are the individual parts in the well correctly located? Is the entire wheel well correctly located? All of these need looking into and I'll need to track down some good scale drawings for that.

A further look from the side shows the rather clumsy intersection of the well box with the rest of the cowl. The PE wouldn't help as it simply follows the contour of the well sidewalls.

I know at this point that I will be discarding the sidewalls and building up the wells from inside the wing halves. Before doing that though, I'll need to understand what's going on with the spar and I'll be back if and when I have more info.

Thank you all for your interest and if you can offer some insight into the spar problem I'd love to hear about it.

 

[Airframes]

Hmm. all seems a bit odd, and I'm guessing that Trumpeter have simplified things.
The vertical, triangular shaped tubular bracket appears to be forward of the spar on the real aircraft, as seen on the Brooklands "Loch Ness" example.
Don't know if the pics below will help, showing the upper side of the starboard nacelle, open into the wheel well, and the best view I could get looking into the starboard wheel well of the RAFM example, under refurb at Cosford.

 

[Crimea_River]

Those will help Terry, thanks. We need to be careful identifying what frame is what given that the upper extension of the u/c struts, the retraction frame, and the wing spars all look somewhat similar. In both of your pictures, it appears that the entire cowling is removed and laying on its side, in which case the visible frame can't be the wing spar, assuming that it was continuous. Was the wing cut or how was the cowl separated from it?

 

[Gnomey]

Looking good so far Andy!

 

[Airframes]

The wing is made up of two sections per side - the main, outer wing, and the inner, wing root section, with the engine nacelle bolting on between the two. These can be seen in the pics below.
Note that the "spar" is not as we would "traditionally" expect, that is, a single "beam" or "H" girder section, running through the fuselage, but is a tubular structure, top and bottom, to which the geodetic frames are then attached. The wing roots are then but-jointed and bolted to the fuselage, the wing actually being at a higher level than the internal floor, and there's a reinforcing frame inside the fuselage, a section of which can be seen in the final photo, taken inside the "walkthrough" fuselage at Brooklands.